GROUP 11

CORDEVILLA.TAN.TORNE.UNGGOS.VERCHES.WAGWAG

Social Class: The Structures of Inequality
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
- is defined as a system by which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy.
-may be grouped according to their gender, race, class, age, or other characteristic, depending on
whatever criteria are important to that society.
- is patterned social inequality. It is also the unequal distribution of societal resources. Saying that
inequality is patterned indicates that the differences occur:
a. on a wide-scale basis
b. with regularity
c. and along lines of certain specific, identifiable characteristics (race, class, and
gender)
-usually based on three major premises:
a. Power: the ability to impose ones will on others
b. Prestige: the respect given by others
c. Property: forms of wealth

Four Fundamental Principles of Stratification
Social stratification is a characteristic of society -- not just due to individual differences
Social stratification persists over generations
Yet, most societies allow some sort of social mobility or changes in people's position in a
system of social stratification
Social mobility may be upward, downward, or horizontal
Social stratification is universal but variable (it changes)
Social stratification involves both inequality and beliefs

SOCIAL INEQUALITY
-is the unequal distribution of property, power and prestige.

SYSTEMS OF STRATIFICATION
3 MAJOR SYSTEMS OF STRATIFICATION
1. SLAVERY
2. CASTE
3. SOCIAL CLASS

1.SLAVERY
the most extreme system of social stratification relegates people to the status of property,
mainly for the purpose of providing labor for the slave owner.
-has been practiced since the earliest times and has continued for millennia in South
America, Europe and the United States.
SLAVES- can be bought and sold like any other commodity.
- arent paid for their labor and in fact are forced to work under mental
and physical threat.
-lowest rank in the society.
Historically a person could be enslaved by:
1. Through debt: a person who couldnt repay what he owed
might be taken into slavery by his creditor.
2. Through warfare: groups of defeated soldiers might become slaves to the victors, and women and
children of the losing side could also be taken into slavery.
3. Through commission of crime: a person who was caught committing a crime could be a slave as
a kind of punishment and as a means of compensating the victim.
4. Through capture and kidnapped

2. CASTE
- is based on hereditary, whereby whole groups of people are born into certain stratum.
- May be differentiated along religious, economic, or political lines as well as by skin color or
other physical characteristics.
- creates a highly stratified society where there is little or no chance of a person changing her
position w/in the hierarchy no matter what she may achieve individually.
- Members must marry w/in their own groups and their caste ranking is passed on to their
children.

INDIA
country most associated with the caste systems.
- based their caste system in the Hindu religion.

5 CATEGORIES
1. BRAHMANS: scholar & priest
2. KHSHATRIYAS: rulers and warriors
3. VAISHYAS: merchants, traders & landowners
4. SUDRAS: farmers, artisans, servants and laborers
5. UNTOUCHABLES: outcasts

* Reflection of what Hindus call KARMA, the complex moral law of cause and effect that governs the
universe.
*According to this belief membership in a particular caste is seen as well-deserved reward or
punishment for virtuous or sinful behavior in a past life.
*Considered a spiritual than material status.

SOUTH AFRICA Apartheid System- a legal separation of racial and ethnic groups that was enforced
between 1948 and 1991 in South Africa.
CLASSIFIED INTO 4 MAIN RACIAL GROUPS
1. WHITE: English and Dutch heritage
2. INDIAN: from India
3. COLORED: mixed race
4. BLACK

*Black -formed a large majority at 60% of the population.
- Forcibly removed from almost 80% of the country which was reserved for the 3 minority groups
and relocated to independent homelands.
- could not enter other parts of the country w/o a pass: usually in order to work as guest laborers
in white areas.
*Social services for whites and nonwhites are separated as well.
* Indians and Coloreds were also discriminated against, though they usually led slightly privileged lives
than the black.
*Whites held all political, economic, and social power.

3. SOCIAL CLASS
- practiced commonly on capitalist societies.
-based on access to resources such as wealth, property, power and prestige.
-Referred to by sociologist as SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS (SES)
-Less rigid than the caste system.
-Children tend to inherit the social class of their parents, over the course of a lifetime they
can move up or down levels in the strata.

UNITED STATES
CATEGORIES
1. The Upper Class
2. The Upper-Middle Class
3. The Middle Class
4. The Working (Lower-Middle) Class
5. The Working Poor and Underclass

UPPER CLASS
- 1% of the US population
-Consist of elites who have gained membership in various ways
-Largely self-sustaining with most members remaining stable and few new ones able to
gain its ranks.
-Earn $250,000/year and up
Old Money- Family Fortunes
Ex. Rockefellers and Carnegies
New Money- Individual Achievements
Ex. Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey

UPPER-MIDDLE CLASS
-14% of the US Population
-Well educated and highly skilled.
-Executive, Managerial and Professional Jobs
-Earn $89,000-$150,000/year

MIDDLE CLASS
-30% of the US Population
-Comprises primarily white-collar workers, skilled laborers in technical and lower-
management jobs.
-Believed to be shrinking
-Earn $55,000-$88,000/year

WORKING (LOWER-MIDDLE) CLASS
-30% of the US Population
-Generally work in manual labor or blue-collar job
-Earn $23,000-$54,000/year

WORKING POOR AND UNDERCLASS
-20% of the US Population
-Generally not well educated, most are high school dropouts and experience lower level of
literacy than the other classes.
-Earn $10,500-$22,000/year

THEORIES OF SOCIAL CLASSES

KARL MARX
-He believed that there were 2 main social classes in capitalist societies.
CAPITALIST (BOURGEOISE) - Who owned the means of production.
WORKERS (PROLETARIAT) - Who owned only their labor.
-He believed that the classes would remain divided and social inequality would grow.
-He believed that a small group of rich, privileged people would control the wealth.

MAX WEBER
- He argued that class status was made of 3 components, or the 3 Ps
PRIVILEGE (WEALTH)- Money, Investments
POWER- Political Power; ability to make changes in the system.
PRESTIGE- Social honor people are given when they are a part of a
well-regarded social group.

PIERRE BOURDIEU
-Attempted to explain social reproduction, the tendency for social class status to be passed down from
one generation to the next.
-According to him, this happens because each generations acquires cultural capital (tastes, habits,
expectations, skills, knowledge, etc)
-The cultural capital either helps or hinders as we become adults

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

DAVID SUDNOW- argues that we make split-second judgments about who people are and which social
status they occupy based on appearance.

AARON CICOUREL- suggests that we make inferences about the status of others when we encounter
them in different social situation.

ERVING GOFFMAN- noted that we read different aspects of identity by interpreting the behavior of
others and that we become accustomed to others reading our behavior in the same way.
- this means that our clothing, our speech, our gestures, the cars we drive, the
homes we live in, the people we hang out with and the things we do on vacation are all part of our
presentation of self and provide information that others use to make judgments about our SES.

*Class Consciousness- awareness of our own and others social status.

PAUL FUSSELL- created the living room scale.


SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS AND LIFE CHANCES
-Belonging to a certain social class brings such profound consequences that its possible to make general
predictions about a persons life chances in regard to education, work, crime, family and health just by
knowing his SES.

FAMILY
Sociologist know that people are likely to marry or have long-term relationships whose social
and cultural background are similar to their own- not because they are looking for such similarities but
simply because they have more access to people like themselves. When you develop ties to classmates,
fellow workers, neighbors and members of clubs, these people may share your cultural background as
well as your social class. It is from such groups that marriage partners come.

HEALTH
Those at the bottom of the social class ladder are the least likely to obtain adequate nutrition,
shelter, clothing and health care and are thus more prone to illness. They often cannot afford to see a
doctor.
Sociologists have found that people who occupy a higher SES are more likely to simply feel
healthier.

EDUCATION
How children perform in school usually determines whether and where they go to college,
what professions they enter and how much they are paid. And generally, those with more education
make more money.

WORK & INCOME
At the bottom of the scale, members of the lower class generally experience difficulties in the
job market and may endure periods of unemployment or underemployment.
While factory work and other types of skilled labor were once enough to support a middle-
class lifestyle, most middle class jobs today are found in the service information and technology sectors.
Most households here are requiring two incomes to maintain a comfortable lifestyle and many middle-
class jobs require some sort of college degree.
The Upper-middle class tends to work in executive and professional fields, some members are
business owners; a small portion own large farms or ranches. Others known as the creative class
architects, writers, scientist, artists, professors, and engineers.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE
In general, people of lower SES are more likely to encounter the criminal justice system,
whether as a perpetrator or victim of crime, than those of higher SES. One influential study showed that
while poverty is associated with higher rates of violent crime, variable such as dense population and
anomie have an even greater impact on crime rates.

SOCIAL MOBILITY
Social Mobility is the movement of individuals or groups within the hierarchical system of social class.

CLOSED SYTEM one with the very little opportunity to move from one
class to another.
Ex. India
OPEN SYSTEM-one with ample opportunities to move from one class to
another.
Ex. United States

INTERGENARATIONAL MOBILITY- the movement between social classes that occurs from one
generation to the next.
INTRAGENERATIONAL MOBILITY- the movement between social classes that occurs over the course of
an individuals lifetime.


HORIZONTAL SOCIAL MOBILITY-is the occupational movement of individuals or groups within a social
class.
VERTICAL SOCIAL MOBILITY- is the movement between social classes and is often called upward mobility
or downward mobility.

STRUCTURAL MOBILITY- occurs when large numbers of people move up or down the social ladder
because of structural changes in the society as a whole, particularly when the
economic sector is affected by the large-scale events.

POVERTY
RELATIVE DEPRIVATION- a measure whereby people are considered poor if their standard of
living is less than that of other members of society.
ABSOLUTE DEPRIVATION- a measure whereby are unable to meet minimal standards for
food shelter, clothing and health care.

SOCIAL WELFARE AND WELFARE REFORM

WELFARE SYSTEM- Providing uniform, standard benefits to all the nations poor w/o regarding to their
personal circumstances and with no time limit.
1970- the poverty rate declined.
1980- Critics claimed that these programs were responsible for creating a permanent
underclass of people living off government checks.

THE CULTURE OF POVERTY
-refers to learned attitudes that can develop among poor communities and lead the poor to
accept their fate rather than attempt to improve their situation.
-The Culture of Poverty is a functionalist approach to poverty. It assumes a "right" or "correct"
culture and a deviant culture. The poor are poor and are likely to remain poor because their culture
deviates from the norm.

THE INVISIBILITY OF POVERTY

WHAT MAKES POVERTY INVISIBLE?
1. RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION- the geographical isolation of the poor from the rest of the
city (or in the case of the rural poor, from any neighbors at all).
2. POLITICAL DISENFRANCHISEMENT- the poor may remain invisible to the larger society
because of their lack of political power.
3. HOMELESSNESS- in certain situations, the very poor are deliberately removed from public
view.
- remain invisible to most of us because of our own feelings of discomfort
and guilt.

AMERICAN DREAM

*For most Americans, the dream also means that all people, no matter how humble their beginning, can
succeed in whatever they set out to do if they work hard enough.
*Its more of an ideology: a belief system that explains and justifies some sort of social arrangement, in
this case Americas social class hierarchy.

Ex. Oprah Winfrey